2.3.3 Errors on start - Path ? [SOLVED]

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Hi all
Just updated Audacity from 2.1.2 to 2.3.3.
On starting I get error boxes: one for DTMF parameters not found, then 4 about HardLimiter.

avformat-55.dll was already on the machine for Download Helper so I used Edit/Preferences in Audacity to indicate the correct path.

I dowloaded hard_limiter_1413.dll from https://www.dll4free.com/hard_limiter_1413.dll.html and pasted it into
C:\Program Files (x86)\Audacity\plug-ins\hard_limiter_1413.dll

But still the errors on startup.

Below is the Debug log file.
I find strange that in the PATH string there is no semicolon (:wink: after

PATH = 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Audacity\plug-ins\

Could that be the reason for the errors or how would it be possible to solve these errors on start ?

Thanks

Pierre

15:37:30: Audacity 2.3.3
15:37:30: Erreur : Impossible de trouver le symbole « AudacityModule » dans la bibliothèque dynamique (erreur 127 : La procédure spécifiée est introuvable.)
15:37:44: Erreur : Échec du chargement de la bibliothèque partagée « C:\Program Files (x86)\Audacity\plug-ins\hard_limiter_1413.dll » (erreur 193 : unknown error c1)
15:37:51: Erreur : Échec du chargement de la bibliothèque partagée « C:\Program Files (x86)\Audacity\plug-ins\hard_limiter_1413.dll » (erreur 193 : unknown error c1)
15:37:52: Erreur : Échec du chargement de la bibliothèque partagée « C:\Program Files (x86)\Audacity\plug-ins\hard_limiter_1413.dll » (erreur 193 : unknown error c1)
15:37:53: Erreur : Échec du chargement de la bibliothèque partagée « C:\Program Files (x86)\Audacity\plug-ins\hard_limiter_1413.dll » (erreur 193 : unknown error c1)
15:37:54: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries…
15:37:54: mLibAVFormatPath (‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Anvsoft\Any Video Converter\avformat-55.dll’) is not empty. Loading from it.
15:37:54: Looking up PATH environment variable…
15:37:54: PATH = 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Audacity\plug-ins\C:\Python34;C:\Python34\Scripts;C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Program Files (x86)\PC Connectivity Solution;C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Shared;;C:\Program Files\Intel\WiFi\bin;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Intel\WirelessCommon'
15:37:54: Checking that ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Anvsoft\Any Video Converter’ is in PATH…
15:37:54: Avertissement :FFmpeg directory ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Anvsoft\Any Video Converter’ is not in PATH.
15:37:54: Temporarily prepending ‘;C:\Program Files (x86)\Anvsoft\Any Video Converter’ to PATH…
15:37:54: Checking for monolithic avformat from ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Anvsoft\Any Video Converter\avformat-55.dll’.
15:37:56: Erreur : Échec du chargement de la bibliothèque partagée « C:\Program Files (x86)\Anvsoft\Any Video Converter\avformat-55.dll » (erreur 127 : La procédure spécifiée est introuvable.)
15:37:56: Loading avutil from ‘’.
15:37:56: Erreur : Échec du chargement de la bibliothèque partagée « .dll » (erreur 126 : Le module spécifié est introuvable.)
15:37:56: Loading avcodec from ‘’.
15:37:56: Erreur : Échec du chargement de la bibliothèque partagée « .dll » (erreur 126 : Le module spécifié est introuvable.)
15:37:56: Loading avformat from ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Anvsoft\Any Video Converter\avformat-55.dll’.
15:37:56: Erreur : Échec du chargement de la bibliothèque partagée « C:\Program Files (x86)\Anvsoft\Any Video Converter\avformat-55.dll » (erreur 127 : La procédure spécifiée est introuvable.)
15:37:56: Returning PATH to previous setting…
15:37:56: Erreur : Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
15:37:56: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from system paths. File name is ‘avformat-55.dll’.
15:37:56: Looking up PATH environment variable…
15:37:56: PATH = 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Anvsoft\Any Video Converter;C:\Program Files (x86)\Audacity\plug-ins\C:\Python34;C:\Python34\Scripts;C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Program Files (x86)\PC Connectivity Solution;C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Shared;;C:\Program Files\Intel\WiFi\bin'
15:37:56: Checking that ‘’ is in PATH…
15:37:56: FFmpeg directory is in PATH.
15:37:56: Checking for monolithic avformat from ‘avformat-55.dll’.
15:37:56: Erreur : Échec du chargement de la bibliothèque partagée « avformat-55.dll » (erreur 127 : La procédure spécifiée est introuvable.)
15:37:56: Loading avutil from ‘’.
15:37:56: Erreur : Échec du chargement de la bibliothèque partagée « .dll » (erreur 126 : Le module spécifié est introuvable.)
15:37:56: Loading avcodec from ‘’.
15:37:56: Erreur : Échec du chargement de la bibliothèque partagée « .dll » (erreur 126 : Le module spécifié est introuvable.)
15:37:56: Loading avformat from ‘avformat-55.dll’.
15:37:56: Erreur : Échec du chargement de la bibliothèque partagée « avformat-55.dll » (erreur 127 : La procédure spécifiée est introuvable.)
15:37:56: Erreur : Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
15:37:56: Erreur : Impossible de trouver des bibliothèques FFmpeg compatibles.

2

I would strongly discourage downloading dll files as they can very easily be used for passing virus, trojans and/or other malware. Even if they are not malware, an incorrect version can interfere with the correct running of the computer and cause errors or instability. It is a very risky thing to do.

The “Hard Limiter” effect was discontinued in Audacity and superseded by a new Limiter effect (which can provide limiting with much less distortion): https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/limiter.html

If you actually want the distortion that the old Hard Limiter produced, you can use Audacity’s “Distortion” effect instead: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/distortion.html and try the “Soft Clipping” preset.

The error message that you got is because when you upgraded Audacity, it retained settings for the old version. My recommendation would be:

  1. Remove the hard_limiter_1413.dll
  2. Run a full virus scan (just in case)
  3. Reset Audacity back to default settings

To reset Audacity:

  1. Quit Audacity
  2. Open the hidden folder:
    Users**\AppData\Roaming\audacity**
  3. Delete the three files:
  • audacity.cfg
    • pluginregistry.cfg
    • pluginsettings.cfg
  1. Launch Audacity.
    You should see the Welcome screen when Audacity starts.
3

Hi Steve
Thank you for the explanations and links.
I had no specific need of hard limiting effect. Just the error messages were disturbant.
So, even if the downloaded hard_limiter_1413.dll had been checked on extracting it from its zip file, I had no tears at scrapping it.
After having renamed the .cfg files (mine dated 31/07/2012) Audacity re-created them. Just had to add the [Recent files] to audacity.cfg.
A clean start now.
Thanks again !
Pierre

4

Thanks for the update.
Topic closed as “solved”.